Teaching in Themes : An Approch to Schoolwide Learning, Creating Community, and Differentiating Instruction

How do teachers and schools create meaningful learning experiences for students with diverse skills, abilities, and cultures? How can teachers authentically assess the learning of their students and build on their strengths and interests in ways that enrich the larger community? How can schools be turned into places where everyone is learning from each other? These are the big questions that guide the work of teachers at the well-known Mission Hill School in Boston and that are addressed in this book. Teaching in Themes will help schools incorporate a whole-school, theme-based curriculum that engages students across grade levels K–8.

The authors provide detailed descriptions of four thematic units: What’s Baking in Kathy’s Classroom?, The Impact of Nature and Play, The Struggle for Justice: U.S. History Through the Eyes of African-Americans, and Astronomical Inquiries. Readers will see how teachers and students design “emergent inquiries” within the themes and create artwork, music, presentations, and a variety of hands-on learning experiences that support differentiated instruction across the curriculum.

Book Features:

• Examples of whole-school projects designed to create a deep sense of immersion in a curricular theme and to build a multi-age learning community.
• Details of how teachers developed rich curriculum tailored to their unique students.
• The insights of legendary educator Deborah Meier on how whole-school thematic units were used to encourage collaboration among teachers.
• An afterword by teachers (and film makers) about the thinking behind their work featured in the widely-viewed film series “A Year at Mission Hill.”